


I Love You When I Forget About Me

by Aishuu



Series: East Kingdoms Block Party [3]
Category: Juuni Kokki | Twelve Kingdoms
Genre: Character Study, Gen, Post-Anime, Post-Series, Sweet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-10
Updated: 2014-07-10
Packaged: 2018-02-08 02:02:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 969
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1922523
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aishuu/pseuds/Aishuu
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Yuka meets Taiki for the last time.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I Love You When I Forget About Me

Yuka ended up marrying a man named Hirose, who was a few years older than she was. She wasn't sure why they fit together so well, unless it was because of their own inherent oddity.

Hirose was a gentle soul, but tended toward silence. Whenever she saw him staring blankly into the distance, she knew he was dreaming of a different world. Somehow, she doubted she was there with him. That was okay, because he didn't share her own world with him, either. They were both orphans in this world together.

But that didn't mean they couldn't find happiness together. By the time she was twenty-two, she already had two children with a third on the way. She was always grateful for the miracle of pregnancy, watching as her stomach expanded with her unborn child. She remembered that other world, where children grew on trees, and was thankful she had returned.

During her seventh month, she took her daily trip to the market to pick up fresh produce. She pushed the stroller with her sixteen-month-old son inside as she held the hand of of three-year-old daughter. It was a pleasant spring day, and all she felt was contentment. Then someone spoke, and her breath caught.

"Sugimoto-san?"

She turned slowly, trying not to hint how excited she was to hear his voice. "It's Hirose-san now, Takasato-kun," she told him, before she set eyes on him.

She had heard he had vanished the night of a spectacular tsunami, and wondered if he had made it home – as was now apparent. His hair was longer, well past his mid-back, and he had gained another couple inches in height, but it was unmistakably the boy who'd been at the center of so much destruction five years ago. But for all his physical changes, it was the intangible sense around him that was most different. Before, he had a distant aura about him, a sense of foreignness that marked him as not belonging. Now he held himself confidently, like a man who knew who and what he was.

"Call me Taiki," he said, and she knew he had discovered himself.

She bent down to pick up her daughter to keep her from adventuring off. Chasing a stray three-year-old would definitely put a damper on this reunion. "I assume you're just visiting?" she asked.

"I came back to prove I could," he said, raising a hand to brush some hair off his left cheek. "I have demons I needed to confront."

Before he had disappeared, there were many who had believed he was a demon himself. She was one of the few who knew differently. "And have you?"

He smiled, and it was so sad she ached to give him a hug. But that would be invading his private space, and she didn't think they were close enough for her to comfort him. "I've seen what I needed to," he said. "Are these children yours?"

"They are," she said. "Ikuya's in the carriage, and I'm holding onto Youko." Her daughter, recognizing her name, giggled before sticking a thumb in her mouth.

Taiki's eyes widened as he recognized the Hourei name belonging to the Empress of Kei. "They're lovely," he said.

"I promised her that I would have plenty of children for her," Yuka said. She shifted her hip forward to better balance her daughter. "Is Nakajima becoming a good queen?"

"I think so. She's going to be one of the legendary rulers."

She had many questions she wanted to ask him, about how Kei was doing or what had happened to Asano, but she sensed he wasn't going to remain long. "Why are you here, Taiki?"

He paused, a curious kind of stillness coming over his body. It was an inhumane quiet, the kind of watchfulness that was the domain of beasts, not man. Then the moment was gone, and she wondered if she imagined it. "I wanted to tell someone what had happened to me," he said, "so I could close the chapter of Takasato Kaname."

And never return, was the unspoken thought. From the news reports, and what he husband occasionally mentioned, she knew he had gotten into far more trouble than anyone deserved. She respected the courage it must have taken for him to make this journey. She could force her husband to bring home dinner, so scratching the market trip wouldn't be a problem. "Would you like to come to my house, then? We can have tea and catch up."

He nodded slowly. "We can."

She smiled, before handing Youko off to him. "Could you carry her? Surely it's good luck for a child to be around a kirin."

"I would be happy to," he said. He arranged the toddler against his shoulder, cradling her protectively. She wondered how anyone could ever think he was capable of harming someone – gentleness was etched into the fiber of his being.

As she led him back to her home, she wondered why she felt so lonely. When Taiki left, she would be alone... and there would be no hope for news from the other side. She understood, even if he wasn't saying it outright, that he was cutting all ties to his former life.

But then she looked over at him, and felt her heart soften. Whatever had happened to him,he appeared to be content with his current life. She couldn't begrudge him his happiness; silently she offered a prayer up to the gods of his world that he would be able to completely overcome the trauma that living in Japan had inflicted on him. If that meant forgetting about her entirely, she would accept that.

But for now, she had an enjoyable afternoon of gossip to look forward to. She wasn't about to look a gift horse – or kirin – in the mouth.


End file.
